Escapade | Ninjago AU

Chapter 18

Seliel's POV

Holding a pillow close to my chest, I lie in a ball in the dark. My body quivers as the tears pour down my cheeks, creating a puddle on my sheets. In just a few days, the king of Trummeria is coming to meet me. I'm dreading it.

Ever since I was told about my arranged marriage, it's been weighing me down. The days that I have in this castle, with my family, with Cole, are limited. Soon, I'll be far from home on some foreign throne next to a complete stranger.

Ninjago is all I know. I don't want to leave it behind. Abandoning it in its darkest hour seems wrong. I doubt the king will keep me updated on what is happening here too, so it'll be like cutting off all ties. He'll probably go Beauty and the Beast style and lock me in a room until I get Stockholm syndrome and fall in love with him.

To make the whole situation worse, Cole has been beyond busy lately. He's spending the time that he used to spend with me locked up in his room trying to find a solution to the unnatural elementals problem, so I don't have to leave. It's a good way to treat the cause and not the symptom, but I'm worried that it's all for nothing.

Cole is an amazing fighter. I'm aware of that, but if an army of elemental masters lost to the unnatural elementals, one amazing, elementalless fighter won't make a difference. I'd prefer that he spend more time with me. If our days are numbered, I want us to make the ones we still have count.

Slightly sitting up, I look over at the door to Cole's room. Light seeps through the cracks in the doorway, meaning he's still up working. If I really wanted to, I could go get him, but then he'd have to see me like this, and the embarrassment is way too much for me to handle.

I stay in the same position on my bed, my fears continuing to eat me up. The puddle on my sheets only grows as I fail to fall asleep. It's definitely late into the night, way past midnight, and I need to be up by seven, but my emotions force me up. I lay here for at least 45 more minutes before Cole's door slowly creaks open, light flooding the room and forcing me to squeeze my eyes shut.

His footsteps start moving towards the main door before they abruptly stop. "Princess?" he whispers, but loud enough for me to hear. "Are you awake?"

I try to halt my sniffles, but when I can't, I answer, "Y-yeah."

When I hear him starting to make his way over to me, I sit up and straighten out my hair, leaning against my headboard. Once I finally look at him, my jaw nearly detaches. Half of his hair is pulled up in a little bun, the lower half falling down to near his shoulders. The only article of clothing he has on is a loose pair of pants that hang low on his hips. His upper body, every bulked muscle that makes it up, is on full display.

So awestruck from his appearance, I don't realize that he's made it all the way over here until the pad of his thumb wipes away my tears. "Why are you crying?"

"E-everything is falling apart," mixed with my sobs and how flustered I am, I can barely get words out. I slide over on the bed, so he can sit next to me. I use the sleeve of my nightgown to wipe away more of my tears. "The king of Trummeria is coming in just a few days, and who knows how long he's going to let me stay here before he abducts me. The kingdom is falling apart with more and more people trying to join the unnatural elementals to 'be on the winning side'. Plus... between training soldiers and thinking of a way to defeat the unnatural elementals, you're also never around anymore."

"Oh Princess," he rubs his temples, "I didn't even realize that I've been leaving you alone. If you need my protection anytime, it's now. I'm sorry that I've made you feel unsafe."

I internally groan at his obliviousness, sniffling before resting my tired head on his broad shoulder. "I don't feel unsafe. I...I just...I miss you," my cheeks heat up as the words leave my mouth. "I'm going to be gone soon, and I want to spend as much time with you as possible before I have to leave."